Railway-car drop door



Aug. 21, 1928. I 1,681,823

A. E. SMALL RAILWAY CAR DROP DOOR Filed Dec. 25, 1926 8 Jhventor flrl/zur Z 7 Sm all dtiorng Patented Aug. 21, 1928.

UNITED STATES 1,681,823 PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR E. SMALL, OF CHICAGO, ILIINOIS,ASSIGNOR TO UNION METAL PRODUCTSCOMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A

CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

RAILWAY-OAR DROP DOOR.

Application filed December 23, 1926. Serial No. 156,707.

The invention relates to a railway dump car having a door forming a partof the car for retaining the load therein which door is provided withhinges adjacent one of its edges and is capable of being dropped orswung open so that the load in discharging slides or passes over theupper surface of the door. Any means of raising the door to the closedposition and anymcans for locking and releasing the door may be employedwith my device.

A door for this purpose must be very strong and durable because:

First, it is a part of the floor of the car and as such must sustain theload as well as the impact blow of the load when the car is in motion.Second, the car is frequently loaded from chutes or tipples from aheight of ten feet or more, causing the load to be dropped directly uponthe doors. Third, clam shell buckets are frequently used to unload suchcars and it is not uncommon for these buckets to rest upon and drag overthese doors. Fourth, when the door'suddenly comes to rest after beingdropped, it is not only subiected to a severe shock but it must sustainthe severe impact'thrust of the load which of course follows the door.Fifth. as the load is theoretically equally distributed, the door mustbestrong over its entire area and must be capable of transmitting theresulting stresses to the car body without much deflection and 'nosubstantial distortion. Any bending of the door or drooping of thecorners would cause a leak of the ladine. especially ofsuch finematerial as sand. chats. etc. Any bending or warping might interferewith the complete closing and locking of the door.

As it costs as much to haul a ton of car as it does to haul a ton ofpaying freight. itis imperative that the car an d any part thereof be aslight as possible. Furthermore, the total weight of the car and freightis determined by the strength of certain standard axles. so that thelighter the car the greater amount of freight a given car will beallowed to carry.

- An object is to form a metallic door with integral corrugations orribswhich impart to it a certain amount of strength and rigidity to resistloads imposed thereon and to so form the ends of the corrugations orribs as to provide a certain amount of resiliency to enable the door todeflect and return to its normal position without appreciable amount ofpermanent distortion.

Another object is to form and arrange a plurality of corrugations in ametallic door so as to obtain a desired proportion between strength,rigidity and resiliency.

Another object is to obtain this result with the least amount of rawmaterial and to provide a finished article of the least possible weightconsistent with strength requirements.

Another object is to provide such acor rugated metallic door which canbe formed by pressing it (when heated, if necessary) between dies whichmove toward each other in one direction only.

The advantages of my door are applicable to any door of a freight car.such as drop bottom general service cars (used in the drawings) hoppercars, swinging side doors or hopper bottom coal cars, etc.

In the drawings: I

Fig. lshows a portion of a railway car with my device applied thereon.

Figs. 2 and 3 are sections on lines 22 and 3-3 respectively of Fig. 1.

Figs. 4 and 5 are sections on lines 4-4c and 55 respectively of Fig. 1with the car parts omitted.

Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are sections similar to Figs. 3, 4.- and 5 but show themajor corrugations with an arcuate configuration.

To illustrate one adaptation of my device, I have shown a so-calledgeneral service drop bottom gondola car wherein the major portion of thefloor consists of drop doors. The door openings are surrounded by thecenter construction 1, side wall 2 and cross diaphragms 3. In normal orclo ed position the door completely closes this opening and in fact is atrifle larger on all sides than the opening so as to provide a lap jointbetween the door and the car frame members. The doors are hinged to thecenter construction and are supported adjacent the side wall by theraising or locking machanism. Any convenient stop may be used to limitthe downward movement of the door.

Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive show the preferred form wherein the body plate ofthe door is provided with a plurality of parallel embossments, eachembossment comprising a plurality of sinuous minor corrugations 20formed therein which are spaced apart distances equal to theirrespective widths and the portion 21 of the plate between adjacent minorcorrugations is also sinuous so that Ill) these minor corrugations mergetogether to form a contiguous sinuous configuration synr metrical incross section about a line midway between the outermost portions. ofthese minor corrugations so that. this line is the neutral axis of thesection. Such a section is very resilient and has a spring li-ke action;under loads, and furthermore, produces a very strong section for theainoimt of metal used. A plurality (two or more) oi? such minorcorrugations 2O merge together adjacent the edges of the plate (or endsof the embossment comprising theminor and major corrugations) to form alesser number of corrugations 22' with flat apices 23- which are spacedapart distances equal to their respective WlClllhS and the part 2% ofthe door between these major corrugations 22 is alsoflat, thus forming aconfiguration symmetrical in cross section about a: line midwaybetweenthe outermost portions of the e major corrugations so that this line isthe neutralr axis of the section. Such a section is stronger andrelatively rigid as compared with the section of the sinuous minorcorrugations because more metal is positioned away from the neutralaxis. The ends of the major corrugations merge into the plane oi thedoorby means of terminal portions 29 of any desired formation. By suchan arrangement a corrugated metallic door is. provided which isrelatively rigid adjacent the end portions of the embossments andrelatively resilient adjacent the middle portions of the-embossment Thesecondary oppositely projecting rib or' corrugation 25 is equal in widti to the adj acent minor corrugations at 26 and decreases in width asthe minor corrugations merge to gether to form the major corrugation 22.These secondary oppositely projecting; ribs 25 also preferably decreasein depth sothat any concentrated stretch of metal is eliminated wherethe minor corrugations merge together.

Figs. 3, 4: and 5 show the major corrugations 22 with flat apices 23 andthe portions (24:) of the plate between the major corrugations alsobeing fiat, Figs. 6, 'Z and 8 are similar to Figs. 3-, 4 and 5.respectively and show the major corrugations with arcuate apices 27 and.the portions ot the plate (28-) between the major corrugations alsobeing arcuate.

It is understood that the embossments or corrugations may extendnormally like to those illustrated in the drawings, or even diagonally,and still comev within the scope of the invention and, furthermore whileI have described and claimed a single plate it is understood that thedoor maybe made of a plurality of united plates and still come withinthe scope of the invention;

The marginal portion (or portions) may be provided with. flanges 9 so asto further stiffen thev sides of the door against. deflection under loadand to stiffen the entire door against buckling or distortion.

he accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention,though it. is to be understood that the invention is not limited to theexact details of construction shown and described, as it. is obviousthat various modifications thereof within the scope of the claims willoccur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a railway car having a door opening,

a door hinged adjacent one edge thereof and supported at the oppositeedge thereof, said door comprising a metallic plate provided with aplurality of corrugations merging'into each other and terminating intothe plate adjacent the opposite marginal portions of the door to form alesser number of corrugations. 2. In a. railway car havinga dooropening, a door hinged adjacent one edge thereof and supported at theopposite edge thereof, said door comprising a metallic plate providedwith a plurality of corrugations merging into each other and terminatinginto the plate adjacent the opposite marginal portions of the doortoform a lesser number'ofwidercorrugations.

3. In a railway car-having a door opening,

a door hinged adjacent one edge thereof and supported at the oppositeedgethereof, said door comprising a metallic plate provided with aplurality of corrugations spaced apart distances substantially equal totheir width, said corrugations merging into each other and terminatinginto the plate adjacent the opposite marginal portions ofthe door toform a lesser number of corrugations spaced apart distancessubstantially equal to their width.

4C. In a railway car having a door opening, a door hinged adjacent oneedgethereof and supported at the opposite edge thereot, said doorcomprising metallic plate provided with a plurality of corrugationsspaced apart distances substantially equal to their width, saidcorrugations merging into each other and terminating into the plateadjacent the opposite marginal portions of the door to form a lessernumber of wider corrugations spaced apart distances substantially equalvto their width. i

5. In a railway-car havinga door opening, a door hinged adjacent oneedgethereof and supported at the opposite edge thereof, said doorcomprising a metallic plate provided with a plurality of corrugationssymmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermostportions of .the corrugations merging into each other and terminatingvinto the plate adjacent the oppositemarginalportions of the door toforma lesser number of corrugations symmetrical in cross section about aline. midway between the outermost portlons oi the corrugatlons;

6. In a railway car having a door opening a door hinged adjacent oneedge thereof and supported at the opposite edge thereof, said doorcomprising a metallic plate provided with a plurality of corrugationssymmetrical in cross section about line midway between the outermostportions of the corrugations merging into each other and terminatinginto the plate adjacent the opposite marginal portions of the door toform a lesser number of wider corrugations symmetrical in cross sectionabout a line of midway between the outermost portions of thecorrugations.

7 In a railway car having a door opening, a door hinged adjacent oneedge thereof and supported at the opposite edge thereof, said doorcomprising a metallic plate provided with a plurality of contiguoussinous corrugations merging into each other and terminating into theplate adjacent the op osite marginal portions of the door to form alesser number of corrugations with substantially flat a-pices.

8. In a railway car having a door opening, a door hinged adj acentoneedge thereof and supported at the opposite edge thereof, said doorcomprising a metallic plate provided with a plurality of contiguoussinuous corrugations merging into each other and terminating into theplate adjacent the opposite marginal portions of the door to form alesser number of wider corrugations with substantially flat apices.

ARTHUR E. SMALL.

